January 03, 2008

I Spent Two Years Campaigning in Iowa and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

After two long years of political foreplay, the game is finally on.

Tonight, Iowans will kick off the nation's presidential selection process by being the first to cast votes for one (in some cases, two, or even three) of the candidates. Political freaks (like me) are on the edges of our seats. But the truth is the results will probably be a lot duller and more indecisive than anyone thinks.

On the Democratic side, it will most likely be a muddied mess, with the top three---Clinton, Obama, and Edwards---clustered in an effective tie. One may be slightly ahead of the others, and there may be one ahead and a two-way tie right beneath. But in all likelihood, Iowa won't decide much, and the winning cluster will go on.

On the Republican side, it will most likely be a muddied mess, with the top two---Huckabee and Romney---see-sawing for first, and perhaps clustered in an effective tie. The ones to watch are McCain---who spent very little time and money in Iowa and yet seems to be having a second life there----and Thompson---who isn't going to win anything (including the nomination) but may get something of a pity vote.

So, barring a breakout win by one of the candidates on either side, all of them will jump aboard their chartered jets at about 10:30pm ET and head east. Toward New Hampshire. By this time tomorrow, Des Moines will be a ghost town, Iowa yesterday's newspaper, not heard from again until the night of November 4, when Tim Russert will be wondering aloud where Iowa's electoral votes are going to go.

For the candidates, it's been a long, tiring road to Iowa. Some of them (Clinton) have been campaigning for four years. Many of them (Edwards, Romney) have been campaigning for two years. A few (Giuliani, Obama) have been campaigning for a year. That's a big investment of time and resources. They all want to win, obviously. But how many of them, after all of their blood, sweat, and tears, are going to leave with a lousy T-shirt?

Comments

"The ones to watch are McCain---who spent very little time and money in Iowa and yet seems to be having a second life there----and Thompson---who isn't going to win anything (including the nomination) but may get something of a pity vote."

Dolce mia, is this a Republibabe warbling at the prospect of conservatism (aka Big Fred) doomed to pity and defeat? Are you indeed confirming the thrust of gringoVision's CONSERVATISM: AN ELEGY? (the first 6 stanzas still available at http://www.gringoman.com/)?

Oh, wait. You also proclaim,

"After two long years of political foreplay, the game is finally on."

Bambinetta, then maybe you're really lamenting this media-hypnotic Iowan night of cauci intercourse? You know what's coming. The morning after. You know the Romans called it 'tristum post coitum'

Or do you?

But if you're really the conservative you do the cha-cha as, who can blame you?

Speaking of conservatism---as our Monica sometimes does and even claims to espouse (I think)---there is this from an authentic conservative....

Jim Robinson, founder of Free Republic has endorsed Fred. Here’s part of his endorsement:

With Fred, we know we’re getting a solid, no-nonsense, commonsense pro life and liberty conservative who will defend the nation, secure the borders, defend the constitution, appoint originalist judges, defend the Bush tax cuts, work to simplify and flatten the tax code, keep social security solvent while providing alternative private accounts, reduce government and spending, and work to return states issues to the states. Imagine that.

In fact, he comes closest to being the conservative leader I’ve been praying for all these years. I don’t know about you, but I think it would be great to be able to enthusiastically support and work for a true conservative candidate whose principles and convictions match so many of my own.

Sorry, I neglected to post the url for the Jim Robinson endorsement from what is arguably the single most important conservative site on-line, FREE REPUBLIC. It gives the full text, which is racier than you'd think from the extract posted above. Here it is:

While the Government-Media Complex has distracted we-the-people with reporting on the Iowa caucus, a sneaky phony REPUBLICAN Senator who carries George Bush's water, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), attached S.Amdt. 2466 to the $555 billion omnibus spending bill that removed legal requirements mandating the federal government fund 854 miles of a double layer border fence spanning America's southwestern border.
This Kay Bailey Hutchinson measure silently gutted the 2006 Secure Fence Act's spending requirement while we all slept ovfer the holidays. Over 80% of we-the-people raised hell with our representatives and senators to get the 2006 Secure Fence Act passed in order to protect our borders, languange and culture. WHO DOES HUTCHINSON WORK FOR is the question! Is she being paid by Foreign interests from the middle east who seek to bring our nation down? In my opinion, THERE NEEDS TO BE AN INVESTIGATION INTO KEY BAILEY HUTCHISON as a minimum. In my opinion, SHE NEEDS TO BE IMPEACHED OR VOTED OUT OF OFFICE!!!!

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no loner resist. A murderer is less to fear.”

THE TWO PARTIES ARE ONE IN THE SAME - IT'S 2-CARD MONTY AT ELECTION TIME! THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS IN CAHOOTS WITH BOTH PARTIES TO KEEP US DISTRACTED WHILE THE SHADOW DICTATORSHIP, CONTROLLED BY FOREIGN INTERESTS, PULLS THE GOVERNMENT STRINGS.

THANKS TO DANGEROUS RINO PHONY SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHINSON, middle east terrorists, contraban, diseases from developing countries can continue to come through our borders and endanger us! And we foot the bill for their education, healthcare and incarceration in jail after they murder and mame innocent citizens.

Hillary is totally vacuous and incompetant! She displayed these qualities for all to see in her call for democracy in Pakistan when Bhutto was assasinated this past week.

Hillary fails to grasp that 99% of Pakistan's population are 7th century throw backs who support the Taliban enemy. Loyalty to the Taliban in purchased with salaries funded by the sale of poppy - the source of lucrative revenue from the sale drugs. Bhutto was also a Talaban supporter in her efforts to indirectly to control Afghanistan when she had power. Bhutto and her family stole billions from Pakistan and are the reason Pakistan is poor. Clinton does not understand that free and fair elections in NUCLEAR ARMED Pakistan will lead to the election a Jihadist Taliban or even Osama bin Laden. The only thing holding Pakistan together today is Musharriff. Yanking support from him will lead to disaster just Jimmy Carter's yanking of support for the Shah of Iran led to disaster. WE LIVE INN A DANGEROUS WORLD - THAT'S REALITY - PAKISTAN HAS NUKES. How will they be guarded from falling into the hands of terrorists if a democracy leads to election of the Taliban in Pakistan???

HILLARY IS A TOTAL VACUOUS INCOMPETANT FOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! In my opinion, her election will be a disaster for the USA!

Ron Paul's reaction to the Bhutto killing was even more foolish than Hillary's. Paul's typical Libertarian b.s. reaction was essentially to urge that the U.S. should leave Pakistan alone to work out their country's problems. Paul clearly has no foreign policy experience and fails to recognize the danger to the U.S. of Pakistan's nukes becoming under the control of the Taliban and al Qaeda. What experience in Paul's background qualifies him to run an organization as large as the U.S.????

You know, of course, who sponsored that border fence bill that was gutted by Jorge Bush's Texas "political neighbor" Senator Lady Kay? That's right, Congressman Duncan Hunter. And you know who is the only major Talk Jock who put Duncan Hunter on the air about that? Yes, Michael Savage. And you know, of course, that Savage will never be invited to Jorge's White House.

Well, it does appear that Duncan Hunter, who fought for his country in Vietnam, and his Marine son fought for it in Afghanistan, is not considered a "friendly" by Monica's Council on Foreign Relations, yet another reason why his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination hasn't a chance in Free Trade Hell.

Elliott said his grass roots group was working to restore funding for the double fence by seeking to introduce a counter amendment that ties funding for the entire Department of Homeland Security to funding of the double fence required by the 2006 Secure Fence Act. Success in this effort would sure be a wonderful thing, but let's not cheer until this actually happens.